Browsing: Tech Reviews

Servers operated by Ubuntu and its parent company Canonical were knocked offline on Thursday morning and have remained down ever since, a situation that’s preventing the OS provider from communicating normally following the botched disclosure of a major vulnerability. Attempts to connect to most Ubuntu and Canonical webpages and download OS updates from Ubuntu servers have consistently failed over the past 24 hours. Updates from mirror sites, however, have continued to work normally. A Canonical status page said: “Canonical’s web infrastructure is under a sustained, cross-border attack and we are working to address it.” Other than that, Ubuntu and Canonical…

First Line Films Sorry, Val Kilmer fans, but the late actor’s Oscar ship has officially sailed. On Friday, Reuters reported that AI-generated acting and writing won’t be eligible for Academy Awards. The new rules from the Academy ​of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will take effect beginning with next year’s presentation, scheduled for March 2027. The Academy’s updated rules state that while filmmakers can use AI tools, “synthetic” performers can’t win any awards. Ditto for AI-written screenplays, which must be “human-authored.” The Academy can request more information from submissions to…

Peacock is home to some of the most addictive original reality series out there, including The Traitors, Love Island and House of Villains. It’s also the streaming home to Bravo franchises like The Real Housewives, Summer House and Top Chef. But even though the platform boasts a great roster of unscripted TV, you can also find incredible scripted shows, too, including the darkly funny Poker Face, dramas like All Her Fault and more. With its vast library spanning every genre and an expanding slate of original and exclusive content, it seems like there’s always something new to try or old favorites…

Microsoft has invested billions across Europe in a bid to increase EU data center capacity by 40%The company is also helping to region boost resilience amid ongoing geopolitical shakeupsMicrosoft declares it wants to earn the trust of Europeans through hard workAmid ongoing accusations of anticompetitive behavior and antitrust investigations unravelling across at least six markets, Microsoft has given us an update on its European sovereignty work and the five core principles it set itself last year.In 2025, the company declared it would build a stronger AI and cloud ecosystem in Europe, ensure digital resilience amid risky geopolitics, protect European privacy,…

Ubiquiti today announced the UniFi Dream Machine Beast (model UDM-Beast) as the latest in its “Dream Machine” series of UniFi Cloud Gateways. And boys, the thing drops with a bang! This brief first take will fill you in on the details, but let me cut right to the chase: from what I’ve seen, the UDM Beast has everything to more than justify its hefty $1499 price tag, which is a little shy of three times the UDM Pro Max’s cost. So, if you’re a fan of the UniFi ecosystem with a tight budget, get a handkerchief ready for the drool…

Publicly released exploit code for an effectively unpatched vulnerability that gives root access to virtually all releases of Linux is setting off alarm bells as defenders scramble to ward off severe compromises inside data centers and on personal devices. The vulnerability and exploit code that exploits it were released Wednesday evening by researchers from security firm Theori, five weeks after privately disclosing it to the Linux kernel security team. The team patched the vulnerability in versions 7.0, 6.19.12, 6.18.12, 6.12.85, 6.6.137, 6.1.170, 5.15.204, and 5.10.254) but few of the Linux distributions had incorporated those fixes at the time the exploit…

Amazon Rejoice: The Amazon app now lets you ask real shopping questions to its fake podcasters — it’s an addition to the “Hear the highlights” AI feature the company introduced last year. Before, the short audio summaries were generated from an unalterable script. Now, the dialogue can adapt to your spoken or typed questions. Amazon says Hear the Highlights is now available for “millions of products” in the company’s mobile app. You’ll see a button beneath the product image for supported listings. Choosing this will launch a short (usually a…

It took some convincing, but at the start of this year, I ended a years-long relationship with Microsoft 365. I’d like to say I ditched the office suite for some nuanced reason, like I don’t want Microsoft’s AI assistant Copilot because I find it distracting and unhelpful, but really, I just wanted to save some money. And LibreOffice is a free alternative that has everything I need.LibreOffice has roots that trace back to 1985, with the release of the word processing program Star-Writer I. In 2010, the independent, nonprofit German foundation The Document Foundation officially launched the free, open-source software suite…

I’ve been using the Philips 5000 Series Dual Basket Air Fryer XXL with Steam for over a year now and it hasn’t failed me once in that time. Despite its mouthful of a name, I love its versatility, and that’s all thanks to its headline act of having an additional steam function.The steam serves two purposes: cooking and cleaning. For the former, you can use a steam-only option for, say, dumplings and vegetables, or you can air fry+steam, which allows you to cook cakes and meats without drying them out too much. Honestly, I’ve not needed to use the latter…

The newly released EnGenius ECW515 Cloud Managed Wi-Fi 7 2×2 Wall Plate Access Point is a compact surface-mount AP. As such, it can be handy in many situations thanks to the extra built-in LAN ports. Here’s the bottom line: If you’re looking for a surface-mount, cloud-managed, dual-band Wi-Fi 7 access point with an integrated 4-port Gigabit switch and PoE Power Forwarding capability, the EnGenius ECW515 is worth considering at its suggested retail price of $199. It’ll work well regardless of which router you’re currently using, though the EnGenius ESG510 of the same ecosystem is the best choice. Check it out…